The Lordship of Mechelen was until 1795 a small authonomous Lordship in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

, consisting of the city of Mechelen and some surrounding villages. In the early Middle Ages, it was part of the

Prince-Bishopric of Liège The Prince-Bishopric of Liège or Principality of Liège was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was situated for the most part in present-day Belgium. It was an Imperial Estate, so the bishop of Liège, as its prince, ...

, which was confirmed in 910. In practice, the area was ruled by the local Berthout family, against the will of the Prince-Bishops of Liège. The

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Neth ...

tried to annex the Lordship, but as a reaction, Liège gave the area in 1333 to the

County of Flanders The County of Flanders was a historic territory in the Low Countries. From 862 onwards, the counts of Flanders were among the original twelve peers of the Kingdom of France. For centuries, their estates around the cities of Ghent, Bruges and Yp ...

. The Flemish also didn't gain complete and permanent control. Mechelen was therefore later considered one of the Seventeen Provinces and then as a province of the Southern Netherlands. The Dukes of Burgundy and later the Habsburg Emperors and Kings were personally Lords of Mechelen and for a while turned the city more or less into the capital of the Netherlands. They established here the highest jurisdictional court of the Seventeen Provinces, called the

Great Council of Mechelen From the 15th century onwards, the Great Council of the Netherlands at Mechelen (Dutch: ''De Grote Raad der Nederlanden te Mechelen''; French: ''le grand conseil des Pays-Bas à Malines''; German: ''der Grosse Rat der Niederlände zu Mecheln'') w ...

. Governess Margaret of Austria also held her Court at Mechelen. Later, the capital moved primarily to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. In 1795 the Lordship was abolished by the French revolutionaries and it became part of the French département of the

Deux-Nèthes Deux-Nèthes (, nl, Twee Neten) was a department of the First French Republic and of the First French Empire in present-day Belgium and the Netherlands. It was named after two branches of the river Nete (Grote Nete and Kleine Nete). The southern ...

. Today it is part of the Belgian

province of Antwerp ) , native_name_lang = nl , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of Antwerp.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van de provincie Antwerpen.svg , shield_size ...

Areas of the Lordship of Mechelen

* the walled city of Mechelen * the hamlets

Nekkerspoel Nekkerspoel is a neighbourhood of Mechelen, Belgium, immediately east of the city. The name means pool of one or more '' Nekkers'' or water demons. and it is presumed that in earlier centuries locals taking a shortcut through the marshlands, of whi ...

, Nieuwland, Pennepoel, Battel, Geerdegem and others * the villages of Hever, Muizen, Hombeek, Leest and Heffen * In a separate enclave, Heist-op-den-Berg and some hamlets like Gestel. {{Burgundian Circle Mechelen History of Mechelen 1795 disestablishments Mechelen